A Fox's Death Wish
by SaltyCats
Summary: Iruka is not the man everybody thinks he is. He could count one hand the people who knew the true him. And that was the way it should stay. On the outside, he was a teacher and known and loved by many. But he is a lying fox, in more ways than one. And soon desperate times call for desperate measures. Remember, not everything is as it seems. (Side KakaIru Later On)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

 **Anything here is not owned by me, but by the creators of Naruto**

* * *

It was dark and cold. Most people stayed inside when they could. Of course, shinobi did not have the luxury of staying inside most of the time like the civilians did. You were send on missions rain or shine, but in this case, snow or strong winds. It was winter time in Kohona if you couldn't tell. But there was one person who didn't mind winter that much, and his name was Iruka Umino.

Because he was a teacher, he didn't go on many missions. Well, at least not ones of the public's knowledge. He had one mission that would last the rest of his life, protecting his home and entire village. But this wasn't the usual, 'I'm a shinobi so I will protect Konoha with my life, it was a task that had been passed down from generation to generation in his family. Iruka had a gift, or in some ways a curse. Scratch that, in a lot of ways it was a curse. He was a demon. Part human and part fox. His mother was the protector of the village, she was also half human and half fox, but his father was fully human. At one point, the family line had been pure demon fox. But it later became mixed with human blood.

And this is where Iruka comes in. He retains traits from the fox but is able to keep a human form. His natural self has sharpened teeth, sharpened fingernails and toenails (which borderlines claws), a pair of fox ears and a tail, something that was a version of a shortened muzzle, and orangish brownish hair that covered his body. Along with heightened senses. In his natural form, he was not the prettiest sight to see. To put it bluntly, he was almost repulsive. His other human form, was bland. Brown hair and eyes, average height and build, and the only thing that made him stand out was the scar that went across the bridge of his nose. Not a huge face to remember. And that was how Iruka liked it.

The hokages knew of his bloodline. Which is how Iruka's family came to protect the borders of Konoha. The humans first asked them for protection and after a long, long, talk the fox demons agreed. Iruka had been raised in the village, but his mother taught him the legacy that he was to carry on. Or well, as much as she could before she died. Iruka was not fully developed in his demon skills and no matter how much he denied it, there was nothing he would have been able to do to protect her from the Nine-Tails. Iruka knew his job and what to do, but little of what to do with his body. He didn't know that is was unacceptable to fight other children or show off his ears and tail. The Third Hokage taught him most of what he knows now. Everything from eating etiquette to how to control shifting from partial fox to fully human. Iruka owed almost everything to the hokage.

But after the third died, Iruka contemplated leaving the village to fend for itself. He knew he could fight off any Hunter Nin or ANBU. Or at least make it past the borders. But Iruka dropped that idea not long after. He knew that this was his duty to protect Konoha, his home and the place he Third vowed to protect. Though he did spiral into what could be called acute depression. But he didn't let anyone know that he was hurting, that sympathy needed to go to the Sarutobi family, The Third's real family, not his honorary one.

The only person who noticed anything was the one person Iruka didn't want to be noticed by. That person was Kakashi Hatake. The famed nin and genius. Kakashi kept glancing back and watching how he comforted Naruto, along with others who were grieving. It made Iruka feel uncomfortable knowing that a ninja was specifically watching for a decent amount of time. There was no huge tension between the two, but that doesn't mean that they would go out every weekend and drink together. They acknowledge each other and said a, 'Hello,' everyone once in awhile and that was it. Both sides of the party had forgiven each other for the rude words that were shared before the Chunin Exams. But that didn't mean that there wasn't and elephant in the room every time they were together, because there most definitely was.

Kakashi knew nothing of Irukas 'condition', or his eternal mission. Nobody except for Lady Tsunade knew what he was. Well, her and Shizune. Iruka asked to be alone with the Fifth in order to arrange the contract that insured of Iruka's protection from her, and his protection of the village in exchange. Lady Tsunade sent the ANBU away believing that there was no way anyone, especially Iruka, could be stupid enough to walk straight in there for an assassination attempt. But nonetheless Shizune refused to leave. She had a healthy respect for her mentor, but at times she refused to listen. There was nothing other to do than allow her to know what he was. Iruka was very reluctant to show another but he did it anyways. They were shocked to say the least when they both read the contract. The Fifth demanded an explanation for what kind of joke he was trying to play. In a nutshell, Iruka came very close to having a chat with TI. And she said that if he didn't give a good enough explanation he would be thrown in a cell for the rest of his days. After a couple of seconds, he dropped into his natural form. It was somewhat painful but he did his best to hide any pain. Lady Tsunade stared for a couple of minutes, her face remained blank. She only gave a little head nod and started to fill out the contract but Shizune gave a little more of her emotions away. She seemed amazed with a twinge of being appalled. Iruka expected that, but it still made his gut twist in sadness. It was nothing against Iruka, but she was, to put it lightly, very surprised.

Tsunade filled out the contract and then came the hard part. Iruka had to bite her wrist to seal the contract. He definitely didn't want ANBU coming after him and didn't not want Tsunade to kill him. After a short explanation of what was to come next, Lady Fifth pulled up her sleeve and handed her wrist to Iruka. It would hurt a little bit, but she would need to undergo this. Her face was blank the entire time. To be completely honest, she looked like she needed a drink. After biting her wrist and letting blood drop from her to the contract there was a poof and Iruka was back to normal. Tsunade now controlled the power to force Iruka to do almost anything. She had close to complete control of him. She healed her wrist while Iruka took the scroll, thanked both of them, and left.

And this is where our story begins.

* * *

Well hello there. Umm the is a little awkward, but this is my first fanfiction. I finished the Naruto series a decent amount of time ago, so if anything is inaccurate please, please let me know. I would like to say that this prologue isn't too bad, but that is up for you people to decide. It could suck for all I know. Also, let me know about spelling mistakes or anything else really. I believe I can take constructive criticism quite well. I'm not usually one of those people, but please review or message me or something. It would be really nice to know how this story is.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

 **All Mistakes Are My Own**

 **I do not own, nor will I ever own Naruto**

* * *

"Hurry up, hurry up, get out of my way." That was what Iruka wanted to say. But what really came out was, "Excuse me please." Polite and gentlemanly was what everyone needed to believe. In all reality, Iruka was a little bit of a jerk. He was a truly nice man when he wanted to be, mostly to people like Naruto and other students. But he had quite the temper, and that was when his true feelings came out. He could reduce a grown man to tears if he let his temper reign free. Most of this was because of his fox personality. Foxes could be notoriously mean if they wanted to be. When Iruka was younger, he released all of his anger through pranks. Of course, nobody got seriously hurt, but once he saw their irritated and angry expressions all of his original anger dissipated for a rush of joy.

Most of those pranks would not have happened if his mother was still alive and breathing. No one truly knew how to handle a fox demon, let alone a fox hybrid. All of the guardians before Iruka had their parents to show them the ropes, or to put it simply, how to blend in with society. It was not easy to blend in, especially for someone the Third Hokage took interest in.

Iruka lived by himself in a large, much too large if you asked him, house. But he spent a great deal of time at the Third's house with his family. He was with the Third so much to the point that some people had thought that Iruka was adopted into the Sarutobi family. Which he was not. But since he spent most of his childhood with the hokage, the Third did not spend a great deal of time with his actual family. And Iruka was resented a bit for that by Hiruzen's kids. Eiji especially, who was the second born in the family. It wasn't like Eiji went out of his way to harm Iruka or cause bad blood between the two of them, but he wanted to spend more time with his father, who was usually with Iruka. And so Hiruzen unintentionally missed a somewhat crucial time in Eiji's life, causing him to slightly resent Iruka for 'stealing' his father away from him. Asuma, on the other hand, was old enough to know that his father was taking care of Iruka. But that didn't mean that Asuma was best friends with Iruka. Asuma did what every close sibling did, sided with the other sibling. Which meant that Asuma also kind of blamed Iruka for not having their father around more. Yet that dislike got better with age, so now Iruka, Eiji, and Asuma were nice enough to each other. Or, Asuma was now fine with Iruka and Eiji's hate had gone down to an acute dislike for him.

Speaking of Asuma, Iruka was about to go on a mission with him. Not that he knew of it yet. He was actually on his way to report to the hokage. She had called him in during class. That had made Iruka slightly upset. He needed to teach the little hell spawns before they became part of a genin team. And he knew that he was the only one his class listened to. But on the other hand, not having to deal with them and their mischief made him very happy. On some days, like today, Iruka could not wait to leave the academy and go home. After checking in at the front desk, Iruka walked to Tsunade door and knocked. He may not get along very well with her, but Iruka was taught to show respect where it was due.

"Come in," was the only response that was given but Iruka knew that something was up. She never usually responded like that to him.

As he walked in his thoughts were momentarily stopped. Inside stood Kakashi Hatake and Asuma Sarutobi. He planned on coming into the Hokage's office and demanding why she wanted to see him, but he very well couldn't do that in front of other people. Against what his mind was telling him, Iruka bowed to Tsunade. Fully bowing to someone made him feel submissive, which in his world, he was the Alpha male. Iruka couldn't help thinking this way, it was just part of the fox's personality he retained.

"My lady, what can I help you with?" Iruka kept his voice neutral as to not offend her. He didn't like being around other people when talking to the Hokage, especially when Asuma was looking at him like that. Asuma's eyes were widened a tad bit and his face was sent into a frown of confusion.

"Ah yes, Iruka thank you for coming here on such short notice. Now we can get down to business. Iruka, Asuma, and Kakashi, you will be going on an infiltration mission to the Land of Tea."

Iruka nearly choked on air. Infiltration? With Kakashi and Asuma? So close to the middle of winter? The others seemed to have a similar reaction as well.

"Lady Hokage? May I ask why I am being sent on this mission?" Iruka asked. He longed to ask the even bigger question on his mind. Why are you sending me on this mission with two others? If it was enough that I had to be sent on this, why not just send me alone? And this close to the middle of winter?

"You are being sent on this because unlike these two, you can blend in fairly well with everyday people." So that was it. He was needed to help take someone or something down using a civilian persona. It was nothing against Asuma or Kakashi, but Kakashi is just too recognizable and Asuma, is a….. well a hard face to forget to be honest. All Iruka did was mutely nod his head. He knew everything would be explained in due time.

"You are all receiving mission scrolls from the mission desks and that is where you will find everything you need to know. Asuma, Kakashi you are dismissed. Iruka stay behind. I need to talk to you." Tsunade ordered. The jounins left the room immediately and headed to the mission desks while Iruka stayed in his place. It took Iruka no more than 30 seconds to burst out all of the questions he had.

"Why are you sending me with two other people? I could do this on my own. And why so close to the middle of winter? You know what happens in exactly 13 days from now. Why Hatake and Asuma? Why-"

"Slow down with the questions brat! And to answer your questions, the council is starting to get suspicious why you are not getting sent on any missions during holiday breaks. And so I thought that this mission would be a good for all three of you. That is all I am telling you for now! You can find the rest out later. One last thing, you cannot, whatsoever, show your natural form on this mission, got it? It would compromise the entire mission. Now get out of my office."

Iruka had no time to process the information before he was ushered out of the Hokage's office. The door slammed behind him with a force that could be heard down the hallway.

"T-That Witch!" Iruka said out loud with shock and outrage lining his voice. Who did she think she was, anyway? Iruka wasn't full of himself, but he couldn't stop that thought that ran across his mind. How dare she talk to him like that? He was the protector of this village! He had done more for Kohona than she had! He could leave the contract if he absolutely wanted to!

"Maa, it's not nice to talk about your hokage like that."

Iruka froze. Had he been standing there the entire time? Had Kakashi heard his and Tsunade's conversation? No, he couldn't have, Kakashi would be asking questions by now if he had. But, Iruka could be in a lot of trouble for calling the Hokage a witch.

"Hatake, hello, umm- what are you doing here?" Iruka cursed mentally. No one was supposed to hear that, let alone Kakashi Hatake.

"I got your mission scroll for you. We leave at 8 o'clock tomorrow. Don't be late." Iruka? Late? The only person would be late is Kakashi.

"Thank you for getting it for me. I will not be late." Iruka replied with a small smile. It was not exactly sweet, rather a smile that seemed fairly empty. And after that sentence Kakashi was gone.

Iruka then raced home knowing that if he didn't get sufficient sleep, he would be dead tired tomorrow morning and that wouldn't work out for anyone.

* * *

Hello, I'm back! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed and favorited the story. I want to especially thank Fanofthisfiction, you gave me some really nice feedback and it made my day. I am thinking about making this KakaIru, but it wouldn't take over the story. This is supposed to be about Iruka. What do you guys think?

Please review and let me know how I am doing with this story. If anyone has any ideas of where this story should head, let me know, please. I have a general idea but suggestions are always really nice and I most likely will end up using said idea. Thank you so much again.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 **All Mistakes Are Made By Me**

 ***Insert Some Funny Thing That Tells About How I Still Don't Own Naruto and Probably Never Will***

 **Also, this takes around the same time Naruto left with Jiraiya**

* * *

It was 7:50 before Iruka ran out the door. He woke up late because his internal alarm clock failed to go off. Every good shinobi had one, and Iruka's was very temperamental, at least it seemed that way to him. He usually needed about six hours to sleep before he woke up, but lately, he was getting seven or eight hours.

" _Must be the time of year,"_ Iruka thought wryly. He knew that it was solely the time of year that was causing all of these issues.

It was the strangest thing, but every year from the middle winter to the start of spring Iruka was stuck in his natural form. His mother never had that issue, and it didn't seem like anyone else in the family line had it, just Iruka. Over the years, Iruka believed that it was because he didn't switch over to his natural form enough. It was logical enough, but it somehow didn't fit. Iruka tried to switch forms whenever he could, but it never seemed to be enough. So Iruka was forced to take a 'mission' every mid-winter and early spring. Of course, it wasn't an actual mission, it was just a cover up. What really happened was Lady Hokage signed a mission scroll saying he was doing spy work and in all actuality, he went to a remote village on the outskirts of Fire Country. Iruka's mother, Kohari, took him to this village when he was very young. According to Kohari, Iruka had to be taken out of the village at that time of year every since he was three years old. She was able to form a contract with the village elders saying that Iruka could always come to the village as long as he protected and worked for the village during said time. The people grew up knowing of Iruka's condition and most of the children adored him. And Iruka adored them too. It was about a three days journey to the village if he went at shinobi speed and about 7 if he went at civilian pace.

Speaking of traveling at shinobi speed, Iruka had reached the rendezvous point.

And he was the first one there. Iruka gave a sigh waved hello at the people on gate duty. It was Kotetsu and Izumo, who were part of Iruka's friend group. Kotetsu was asleep but Izumo was fully awake. Which meant that Izumo was the only person to wave back. Iruka had half a mind to go over there and wake Kotetsu up himself. And his particular method would be to throw a senbon at him. Of course, it would be in a nonvital spot and it would just be with enough force to poke him. Iruka was going to refuse his urge and continue waiting but when Izumo gave him a large, give-em-hell grin, who was he to refuse? Iruka took out one of his many senbons that were in his vest pocket. He made sure to push his chakra signals down so it wouldn't give away his excitement. He let go of the senbon with just enough force to prick his arm and threw it at an angle so it looked like Izumo poked him with it. And as predicted, Kotetsu woke up with an unmanly yelp. He looked up at Izumo with a dirty glare. Izumo was frantic to point out that Iruka threw it but when he pointed, nothing was there. Kotetsu preceded to yell at him for poking him while Iruka stood behind a tree laughing. It was very funny to him.

"So, what are we laughing about?" A voice behind Iruka said. And Iruka turned around with a start. As he did he got a face full of smoke. ' _It's Asuma,'_ Iruka's brain helpfully supplied.

"Ah, hello Asuma. And uh- I'm uh- not laughing about anything very important." Iruka cringed. It was a weak excuse at best. He didn't know why he didn't just tell Asuma why he was laughing but it seemed…special in some sort of way. And it was something like that was to not be shared, yet Iruka still felt guilty for being 'selfish'.

"I see. Has Kakashi made an appearance?" He continued. Thank any deity out there that Asuma let the excuse go.

"Did you expect him to be here yet?" Iruka answer rolling his eyes in the process. Really, did anyone expect Kakashi to show up on time anymore? From the look of the sun's position, it was already 8:30. It would be a miracle if he showed up now.

"Maa sensei, do you have that little faith in me?" A voice suddenly called from above them.

Iruka and Asuma both looked up into the trees and saw one silver-haired jounin crouching on a branch.

"Yes," Iruka replied dryly. If Iruka was anyone else, he might have been glared at or threatened but this was Iruka. And he had respect from almost everyone, all the way from pre-genin to jounin. While he may be strict and harsh sometimes, he was always there for everyone, no matter the circumstance. He had taken a crying, sentimental, drunk Anko and allowed her to sleep in his apartment until she sobered up. He listened to Kotetsu when he was having relationship issues, (with someone he refused to name), and tried to give advice. And helping these people gained respect. Along with the fact that most jounins respected him for standing up to them. Most were too scared of repercussions, but not Iruka. He would not take their bullshit. It would seem cruel at times though. Chakra depleted, exhausted, and sometimes full of lacerations didn't matter when filling out a mission report, but Iruka knew when to go easier on people. It is all depending on their condition.

"Well since it is already 8:30, we must be on our way. Can't be late now can we?" Kakashi said as he bounded off with an eye smile.

Iruka rolled his eyes again at the irony that Kakashi purposefully put in that statement. It was most likely that the Hokage made sure that the time to meet was early so that there was a limited chance of actually being late for the mission. More likely than not, they would be early for the start of the mission.

So Iruka and Asuma followed Kakashi to the tops of the trees and started running. In that exact order too. It went Kakashi, who was captain at the front, next Iruka in the middle, solely for the fact that he was also their medi-nin on the mission and he was supposed to be protected at all costs, and finally Asuma, who was in the rear because he had good peripheral vision and good skills to protect from behind if something happened. The main reason Iruka had knowledge in medical jutsu was because he was a teacher who taught nine-year-olds how to throw pointy objects.

More than once he had to heal a scratch or two on a child or himself if the child throwing missed and the sharp object headed for another child. And if the object did head for another child, Iruka was always there to jump in front of it and take the pointy object in the arm or back depending on where in was thrown from. It didn't hurt very bad, it would just leave a cut and it was easier to just heal it than anything else. And no matter what, healing always came in use, especially in times of danger.

~ooo~

They were about two and a half days into the journey when Iruka was jolted out of his thoughts because he felt a small chakra burst. And he didn't seem to be the only one who felt it. To anyone else, it might have seemed like nothing, but they all knew that none of them were supposed to use chakra while traveling. Kakashi had slowed down a minuscule amount. That action was able to signal Asuma and Iruka to be on alert and to be prepared for an attack. Out of the middle of the trees came approximately 13 senbon and 7 kunai, all of them were evenly distributed and heading towards all three of them. Being a ninja, they all were able to easily dodge the weapons and land on the forest floor to prepare for another attack. Iruka got his kunai out a was quickly making a plan in his head. ' _I could set up a trap...but that would take too much time and I would be vulnerable to attack. But then again, if I set up a genjutsu I could create an opening for the other two we could end this easily.'_ But Iruka decided against both of those options and decided to wait for Kakashi's plan of attack. He was the team leader after all.

"Well well well, what do we have here boys? Some Kohona bastards are what it looks like." A very large man said as he stepped out of the forest trees followed by what looked like four other people. He was muscular and looked well over 6' foot; he also had scars that went down his face and arms. Quite scary if you didn't know what you were doing.

The men did not have any headbands to define where they come from or _came_ from. These people were obviously missing-nin and if Iruka had to guess they were Iwa-nin. It would all come down to what kind of jutsu they used.

"How about we have ourselves a little deal, so maybe we can both benefit from this fighting, wha' do ya' say?" The scared man, obviously their leader, said. And he was apparently a very impatient man too because he didn't wait for any of the Konoha-nin to respond.

"Us against you three, if you win, we drop all of our weapons and give you this special scroll we have of Iwagakure's jutsus. And if _we_ win, we get that little brown haired fellow right behind ya'."

What?! Take Iruka? Why would they ever want to do that? ' _But having an Iwa scroll would be quite beneficial Konoha in the long run.'_ Iruka's brain supplied. And it would be useful, especially if there was ever another war with Iwagakure. And that was all Iruka needed to be convinced that the bet could be very useful. Kakashi was about ready to say, "No," when Iruka interrupted him instead.

"Alright, we will take you up on your bet." Kakashi and Asuma both whirled around to give him a glare. "No, we will not be-" Kakashi retorted back to the men while still having narrowed eyes and looking at Iruka. "Yes, we will. This is a keen opportunity to gain intelligence for a meager price. And besides, I have faith that we will win." Iruka replied back with a smile playing on his lips. He knew enough about psychology that saying something like 'we can win' easily boosts the confidence of participant.

"Ahha! Look at that boys, he had _faith_.I can't wait until they lose and we get to crush any faith that he might have left." The former nins got into a semi-battle formation as the leader spoke.

The Konoha nins got into a battle stance and Iruka thought he heard something along the lines of, "Insubordinate brat," come from Asuma's mouth. Iruka had half a mind to laugh at that statement. The missing nins were the first to make a move. They spread out and hid among the trees.

It started with a rain of kunai coming from every direction. They were automatically on the defensive. Iruka whipped out his own and deflected the ones that we coming towards him. It was getting more and more difficult to block as the minutes went on. Iruka heard a rupture of clothing and saw a kunai pierced his sleeve. He growled for allowing a rookie mistake like that happen. All of the sudden the kunai stopped.

Iruka felt it before anything happened. The ground started to shake and solid turned to mud. They had to propel themselves upwards to stop from sinking into the ground. Iruka wanted to keep track his teammates but it seemed impossible with the onslaught of attacks. These people were obviously high chunin or jounin level, which meant bad news for him. His skills were only strongest in his natural form and he was unable to transform due to other people being there. A scream split the sky and a tang of metal hit Iruka's nose. He wanted to gag it was so overwhelming. One look down gave him the answer; one of the missing nins was dead and sinking into the mud.

"Now you've done it!" The leader roared. But now the leaf nins were already on the offense. It created just enough of an opening for them to strike. Iruka let loose a series of explosion tags that he set up while in the tree. It caused a distraction while he snuck further into hiding.

 ***** "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu!" Iruka's opponent stopped and stared horrified. The man scream was frozen on his face as the jutsu played out. His worst fears were coming to haunt him. His face went slack when Asuma came up and stabbed him. But that split second cost Asuma dearly as when he went to impale his original opponent, the other man had the exact same idea. They stabbed each other at the same time. One in the stomach, the other in the chest. Iruka went purely by instinct to go help Asuma but he was grabbed and shoved against a tree. It was the leader, and he had Iruka by the throat. He couldn't breathe. The short gasps of air were becoming less and less and harder to take in. He desperately tried to claw the hands but it was futile. White spots flashed over his vision and Iruka wanted to give into the darkness. He desperately just wanted to stop fighting but he knew if he did, he would die. A final idea came to his mind so he reached into his pocket to pull out something, anything. The object was pointy and the man didn't expect Iruka to be able to move his arms let alone stab it into his throat. It wasn't even close to enough force to kill him, but just enough for the leader to drop Iruka and stumble back. Iruka gasped for air and started to cough but he still felt like he couldn't breathe. There wasn't anywhere near enough air coming in and he was on the verge of panicking. And the spots were floating back across his vision.

"Chidori!" Was the last phrase Iruka heard before he knew nothing more of the world.

~ooo~

It was dusk before Iruka woke up again. The pungent smell of metal and blood hit his senses at full blast. And so Iruka promptly turned to the side and threw up. He stumbled up and saw bodies everywhere. But the one he saw closest to him were the most familiar. Iruka rushed over to Asuma to check if he was breathing. The sword was pulled out of his stomach and it was poorly stitched. He started healing what little he could on his chakra. After a few seconds, Iruka crawled over to Kakashi to also check his pulse. It was stronger but was still not up to healthy levels. Both of his eyes were uncovered, so chakra depletion was a very plausible answer to why he was passed out. Iruka was so tired, he was so hungry but he was afraid he wouldn't hold it down, he was in so much pain. Iruka felt like giving into the darkness that wanted him but after everything, how could he give up now? They needed to get to a safe place and Iruka was their only hope at the moment.

So he got up and made a plan.

* * *

Hello, I'm back once more. And dear God, must I say I suck at battle scenes! That was my first ever battle scene and I was ready to just scream because I had no clue what to write. This is my longest chapter and it took me an entire morning and afternoon to write. Sorry, once again that this chapter sucks. Also, the jutsu that had an asterisk by it, that was Demonic Illusion: Hell View Technique. But anyways, I wanted to thank all of you so much again for reviewing and reading this story. It means the absolute world to me that you guys took the time to read this story.

I wanted to thank the guests who reviewed. It means a lot that you guys like the story and want me to continue. Also, Wawayaya thank you so much for responding (Your comment made me have to get up and walk around because I was so happy) and telling me to go with my instinct. **Because this story will now be KakaIru,** of course, it will be a little bit before I introduce it, but yeah! I got the go ahead, so sit back and enjoy the ride! And last but not least, .31, thank you for favoriting and following the story. I am so glad that you enjoy it.

Please review if you have any comments or revisions for this chapter. I love hearing from you guys, truly. It makes me so excited and happy.

So...that's all I have for now. Thanks again!


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 **All Mistakes Are Mine**

 **If I owned Naruto, why would I be here?**

* * *

"Move dammit!" Iruka commanded his own legs. He was unsteady, to say the least, and trying to carry two people was making him worse for wear. Kakashi was passed out from chakra depletion, Iruka only knew this because he saw the body that Kakashi fought; it was mutilated and you could barely tell there was once a human at all. Asuma had a large stab wound in the stomach that was slowly becoming infected with all of the blood and dirt in the air and Iruka...well Iruka had laceration all across his body and a very sore throat. All of them were in terrible condition and should have immediate medical attention. But how were they suppose to get treated when the closest village was a 3 days walk? It would be even further in their conditions. Yet, Iruka had a plan. He knew that there was only one option that would ensure the survival of Asuma and Kakashi.

But this option required it to be night time because _she_ only came out at night. If Iruka was being honest with himself, he was really scared to see _her_ again. The last time they met, she got very angry and attempted to kill him. That was not one of his best experience. She was ruthless, of unimaginable beauty, and deadly all in one. The perfect package if you asked her. And her name was Izanami. She was Iruka's honorary cousin. And like him, she was a half-demon; but instead of a fox, she was a black widow.

With Jet black hair, dark skin, and red eyes, she was the perfect human in disguise. Izanami was able to use venom if allowed to bite into flesh and had a very nasty habit of eating her partners after sex. Iruka shuddered at the thought when she tried her hardest to get him to sleep with her. And Izanami took quite the offence when Iruka told her that she was not his type and therefore, became enraged. But that was three years ago, she would be over it by now, right? Iruka prayed that she was over it by now because if not, he was in a world of hurt.

He went over his options again, either risk traveling to the next village and hoping that they had a doctor, set up camp and hope that sooner or later one of them would wake up and be magically healed, or send out word for Izanami who with her knowledge of herbs, could help them all recover and potentially save them from infections or death. Iruka groaned, it was all coming down to Izanami to help them. " _Well,"_ He thought, " _I guess she might get along with Kakashi, knowing how perverted the two of them are."_ But Izanami was not just perverted, she was downright sexual! Still, Iruka knew that she would help if he asked because behind that scary outer layer, she was a huge softy.

So Iruka looked over at Kakashi and Asuma and moved them over to be propped on a tree. Another reason why he didn't want to use this option was because it required him going into his natural form. So Iruka then went a couple of yards away from them because if one of them did wake up, they wouldn't be able to tell that it was him making the noise. He started to feel guilty when thinking about disobeying his Hokage but he knew that it was a life or death situation. But that didn't make him feel any better.

Iruka stepped behind a tree and touch the seal on the inside of his forearm. The seal was placed by his mother to ensure that he never lost himself to his demon side. It was a valid concern, many other types of demons-human-hybrids had lost themselves to their demon side. Which led to madness soon after and eventual death by demon hunters or priests.

Iruka's mind was filled with memories of his ancestors. The seal ensured that he would have these memories so that he could never forget who he truly was. Demons hybrids either lost themselves to their demon side or they joined the human side. These options both ended in madness. Every hybrid was a ticking time bomb that threatened to go off. If you were lucky, you were killed before you chose a side.

This also happened so he would never make the same mistakes his ancestors did. It was a learning process and they needed guides.

You would think that after this long of shifting, Iruka would be used to the memories that flooded his brain, but he wasn't. It brought him panting and to his knees every time. The shift became less painful and quicker over the years. As he kneeled on the ground, he felt every sound, smell, and sight become clearer. Along with different shades of red and green fade into a dark shade of either gray or black and white.

It was a few moments before Iruka was able to stand again. His legs threatened to give out but they didn't, thankfully. Iruka knew that Izanami would be aware that there was another demon shifter in the area. Every time there was a shift in someone's territory a signal would be given off, and this 'signal' is usually called Demon Chakra. It will go undetected by regular shinobi and even ones who possess the byakugan. It is only other demons or demon hybrids that are able to see it. But the thing is Izanami would not know that it was Iruka, and that meant that he had to give off another sign.

Iruka felt fairly embarrassed by what he was about to do, nevertheless, he did it. For the sake of his team. Iruka stood up and did let out a Vixens Scream six times, within five seconds of each other. All demon foxes, hybrids or not, were able to let out the different screams, howls, growls, and barks that a normal fox could. It scared the hell out of Iruka's neighbors when he was younger. They called animal control, which was the Inuzuka Clan at the time, on more than one occasion. But as he got older he found out to only use those sounds in a time of emergency, not just whenever he felt like it.

After that embarrassing display, Izanami for sure knew that it was Iruka that was in her territory and that he was in desperate need of help. Iruka quickly shed his natural form and went back into his human one. She knew where he would be and he knew that she would come as fast as she could. Iruka jogged back to where he laid Asuma and Kakashi down at. He saw that Kakashi's eye was open but it was glazed over and wild looking. He looked ready to pounce at any moment, but Iruka knew that he wouldn't be able to move, at least right now.

"Please forgive me when you wake up Captain. I am truly sorry for what I am about to do." Iruka said with a grim smile as he went up and punched Kakashi in the face. Iruka knew that something must be wrong with Kakashi if he allowed Iruka knock him out.

He had to bit his cheek in order to not scream out from moving his arm. Iruka figured he dislocated something, but he had no clue if he did for sure. However, Kakashi needed to be asleep when Izanami got there. They would probably have to be in their natural forms in order to carry the two knocked out men to her cave. Plus, she could seduce a man just by looking into his eyes, or eye in this case. Not that Iruka was jealous! Pssh, not at all! While Kakashi was very physically appealing, (according to some people that were definitely not Iruka), he was a giant man-whore. At least, that's what he heard at the mission desk was anything to go by. Which it usually was! Reliable, that is. Iruka was definitely blushing by now. He was then jerked out of his thoughts of a certain jounin when he heard a voice come from behind him.

"Ruka darling? Have you finally given in? I knew you would come around sooner or later." Apparently, she hadn't forgotten about their little fiasco, but at least she wasn't angry.

"Yeah, it's me Izanami. Please come quickly, I need your help." His voice was dire and full of more emotion than most would have liked. And quickly she did come. Only to stop when she saw him hovering over two people, who were most definitely not demons.

"Ruka? What is this? Are they why your call was so urgent?" She sounded board. Izanami, like most demons, did not have a soft spot for humans. The rare, like Iruka, who accepted and lived with humans were in return not accepted widely by other halflings or full demons. This divided demons in half, each side not very accepting of the other. But somehow, Izanami and Iruka were able to keep good ties with each other.

"I need you to heal them. Please, you owe me one for last time we saw each other." Iruka stood up wobbling. His eyes were saying what words could not. These humans were obviously very important to him. Izanami scoffed but went over to look at the two men anyways. She made a face as she looked at Asuma's stomach wound.

"Well, that is obviously infected. He needs a medicine immediately to stop the spread of infection," She finished her inspection on Asuma and looked like she wanted to say more but instead she moved on to Kakashi. "And he is obviously chakra depleted and has a nasty wound on his left shoulder that is starting to fester." Izanami stood up with more grace than any ninja, let alone human. "Looks like you and your buddies did a number on these guys. That one over there looks pretty torn up." She pointed to the first man Kakashi fought. She sighed and tilted her head up in an exasperated fashion. "Hindsight's going to be a bitch with this one, isn't it? No matter, switch over and carry them back to my cave. I will heal them there."

Izanami stopped in front of Iruka and looked at his shoulder. She moved with speed only a spider could have and shoved his arm back into place. Then twirled around and started walking. Iruka had to bite his cheek again to stop from screaming out, but his shoulder felt remarkably better.

She stopped a couple of paces away. Iruka took that as a sign to change. It was kind of taboo to watch another demon switch forms. That was reserved to close family, pack members, or mates. The shift seemed to go faster than last time and within a couple of moments, there was a rustle of leaves and a grunt. Iruka had Kakashi picked up and slung over his two arms while Asuma was pulled over his shoulder. It was a very good thing that he had kept up on his regimen of lifting weights every day.

"Okay, lead the way," Iruka grunted out. He really hoped that her cave was not that far away. Or they would have to frequently take breaks. His wounds were mostly affecting his arms and not his legs, which he was grateful for. But before leaving the clearing Iruka called out, "Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!" He aimed it at the missing Nin bodies. Just in case other people would come across the bodies and possibly alert a ninja village. He made sure that this jutsu would leave no traces behind except for a little bit of burnt foliage.

~ooo~

Iruka had to stop twice before they reached Izanami's cave. Carrying two fully grown men while having injuries of your own was not the easiest task. But it was managed and it was a feat if Iruka had ever heard of one.

"Set the humans over along that wall and the take your shirt off," Izanami said to Iruka. He immediately went pale. Was she going to finish what she started before? Was she going to attempt to kill him again? Iruka unconsciously pulled out his kunai and gripped it. "Put the weapon down you mongrel. How am I going to heal your cuts if I can't get to your chest?" Oh. So that was the reason. Iruka managed a sheepish look while he set the other Konoha-nin down. To be honest, Iruka didn't hurt that much, he was just very uncomfortable.

His tail was tucked into his pants because he had no way to allow it free. Along with the scent of blood and infection that was still very fresh on his mind. And finally, his throat hurt really bad, most likely from being choked into unconsciousness. Nonetheless, he took his shirt off to allow her to get a good look at his injuries. She made a small noise of acknowledgement and then pulled out some weird green looking poultice. "Good thing you have barely any chest hair or this could hurt a lot more." And when she placed the poultice on his cuts it started to burn. But not like it-burns-like-fire, but more like it-burns-so-bad-it-feels-cold. Hey, at least Iruka didn't have any hair that could potentially hide or make the illusion that there were more cuts.

"Oi, Rukie, I think you got some 'splainin to do," Izanami said as she pointed to the wall.

"What the hell is going on."

Iruka whipped around to see that one of his teammates had unfortunately woke up, at the worse possible moment.

" _Well, shit."_

* * *

Ah! Hello my readers. How are you this fine day? I'm well. Thank you so much for reviewing and favoriting this story. I wanted to say...I like this chapter. To be specific I like Izanami. She is a character that I made up, but please give her a chance. She won't play a major role but she will be here. She is a black widow spider halfling. But yeah, I like her character and you should get a little bit more of her in the next chapter.

I wanted to thank the guest for giving me the confidence to continue. Because trust me I need it. Haha. Also, Wawayaya, thank you so much. You are one of the main reasons why I continue this story. Like move over real life friends, you are my new favorite person. I can't even say with words how much you guys mean to me. Thank you again.

Please review about what you think of this chapter. Or if you have any revisions or criticism. Thanks. I really mean it guys.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

 **All Mistakes Are My Own**

 **Very Close To Owning Naruto. But Close Only Counts In Horseshoes And Hand-Grenades**

* * *

 _Oh Shit, oh Shit, what am I going to do?_ Iruka's hands were flying to cover his ears and his face… and basically every part of his body. He wasn't supposed to wake up! Who wakes up when they were impaled with a sword not even two hours ago?!

"Umino is- what- who-" Asuma couldn't even form words. Great, because that meant that he could see everything in the dim lighting.

"Umm, I can explain everything!" Iruka called out. But how was he going to explain the ears, whiskers, muzzle, eyes, and everything else? How about, 'Hey I am actually a demon hybrid, but don't worry, the Hokage already knows. So you can go back to sleep, nothing to worry about here!'. Yep, because that would work! Definitely!

"I could eat him if you want." Izanami offered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Yah, and who are you exactly princess?" "Izanami, and if you get to call me princess does that mean I get to call you dinner?" "I'd kill you before you even touched me." "Do you want to bet on that, because I promise you I will win. Is there anything you would prefer to be cooked with?" Izanami and Asuma were glaring at each other at this point. Izanami was ready to switch forms and Asuma had his hands on his chakra blades. Iruka wondered how he was able to speak, let alone move. But that could wait.

"Wait! Hold on for thirty seconds! Nobody is touching anyone! And definitely is nobody _eating_ anyone!" Iruka stood in the middle of the two. It was like fights that happened in his classroom between two hotheaded kids. But this time, the two opponents could actually kill each other. Their eyes turned back on Iruka.

"I swear I can explain everything when we get back to Kohona. But for now, you two need to stop." He growled out. They were acting like a bunch of children! Iruka's ears stiffened as he heard a groan. Asuma attempted to get up but could not. The stitches that were there would be enough to hold the bleeding for now but Izanami needed to redress the wound and put the poultice on it. "Please don't attempt to move, you will only succeed in aggravating it more." He glared at Iruka but made no attempt to move again. Iruka knew that at this moment the other Konoha-nin did not trust him. And Iruka didn't blame him, how could you trust someone with a fox's face? Literally.

He did not have any clue how Asuma was feeling at that exact moment. For someone you have known for years turns out to be… this thing? This monster? The thing parents tell their children in order to get them to eat their vegetables? Iruka had never felt this spiteful over his other half before, but now he hated it. He hated how it made others scared. He hated how he was automatically branded someone to be suspicious over. He hated how he was stuck in two worlds, each not as accepting as they should be. Iruka let out a harsh laugh. Why did he ever think that he should live with humans? Why live with anyone, why couldn't he just run away? He would finally be free of ridicule and just be free. Just then Iruka felt a hard slap across the back of his head.

"Oi, Rukie. Stop thinking so hard, you'll give yourself an aneurysm." Izanami said quietly. She knew what he was thinking. Izanami knew that no matter how much she would bug him to leave the humans behind, Iruka's place was among the humans. Every halfling debated living with humans or not. It was a very hard decision which led most spiraling down into depression because of so much self-loathing. It was harder than most thought to be a demon halfling.

Iruka whipped around and caught Asuma by the eyes. There was a swirl of energy and a loud bang. The jounin was now fast asleep on his side. It would be a dreamless sleep which he would wake up from in a few hours. But he couldn't be awake. As long as Iruka couldn't explain what was happening, Asuma couldn't be awake.

Demons had multiple powers that required 'Demon Chakra'. Tricking the mind was the main skill that was passed down in the Umino family. They could not search memories like the Yamanaka Clan, but they could alter the way the mind perceives things. For example, Iruka used this skill when he used to go on pranking sprees. He would alter his pursuers perception so that they would think they were closer to catching him than they actually were. Let's say one of his pursuers was 20 feet away, Iruka would make it look like they were only 10 feet away. It was his main way of getting out alive when pranking. And just because he usually came back to his home semi-chakra depleted didn't mean that much to him. The only thing about Demon Chakra is that whenever used, it takes twice that much from the user's normal chakra supply. Quite terrible if you didn't have at least a decent sized chakra supply and good control.

"You know, Ru-Ru, this will be very messy for your Alpha." Izanami mused. That immediately brought Iruka out of his bad mood. At least for now. "She's not my Alpha!" Iruka yelled. But it came out more like a whine, the human not fox kind, mixed with a yell. "What if your Alpha heard you talking like this? And come on, we both know she is you Alpha." She said as she rolled her eyes. And unfortunately, Iruka knew this was true. Tsunade was his Alpha. It didn't matter how much he denied. He gave a belated sigh and looked outside.

It was the middle of the night if Iruka had to guess. If the crickets and cicadas were anything to go at least. His stomach growled and his ears automatically turned red. "I planned on going hunting, but someone ruined my plans. Not going to mention any names, Ru-Ru. Anyways, call it payment for the medicine. Go get me some food." Iruka couldn't deny that request. Hunting was easy in his fox form and as long as he had his kunai, it would be even easier.

"Alright. I will be back no longer than an hour." As he stepped outside it started to snow. That would cover his tracks back to the cave so he wouldn't be able to find his way back using that method. But he could always find his way back with his sense of smell. He ran for a little bit less than 15 minutes before he stopped and scented the air. There were rabbits to his left and a couple of voles about 30 feet in front of him. Iruka knew that he wouldn't be able to get both of them, so it came down to which would feed better? He made his choice with ease, it would be the rabbits. Bending down close to the ground he scented one last time to get a final position of the rabbits. Almost exactly northeast from his current location. He positioned his kunai and was ready to strike when the world stopped.

People. There were people coming. The rabbits and voles both fled in a flurry but Iruka hardly took notice. What if they were more missing-nin? And if they had any trackers, the leaf-nin were already halfway to death. Not wasting any time, he got up and ran. It wasn't just running, he was sprinting. The only way to see him was when the leaves moved from the velocity.

" _Run, run faster than you ever have before. Protect your people."_ It was chanted. Shouted. Screamed. Every bone in Iruka's body yelled out for him to go faster. There was nothing to focus on. His body automatically jumped over fallen trees and shrubs.

He stopped only when he got into the cave. Nearly running over Izanami in the process. He switched to his human form. If it was a battle they were looking for, they would get one.

"Iruka what is going on? You're all sweaty and exhausted. And I know you didn't meet someone, so it must be important." She said with her brow furrowed. Leave it up to her to drop something sexual into the conversation. But there was zero time to dwell on it.

"There are people coming. Potentially enemies. We need to protect Asuma and Kakashi at all costs. They are extraordinarily important to the village, they cannot die." But before Iruka finished, Izanami was already pulling out her weapons that laid across the walls of the cave.

The demons stood outside at the entrance of the cave poised and prepared for a fight. It would take a hell of a lot to bring Izanami down and even more for Iruka. Threatening his teammates brought out the worst in him. Or in the Leaf's case, the best in him.

"They're coming. Wait for them to make the first move and then attack. End this fight quickly." Iruka held his breath after finishing.

 _Hope for the best but prepare for the worst._

There was a bird call. It would not raise any alarms to anyone else but Iruka knew. That was a Barn Owl's call. Konoha nin used that when trying to identify someone without giving away their position. Iruka stayed tense but made the same call in return. If it was Konoha, then they would wait exactly seven seconds before saying something.

 _3, 4_

Izanami's face betrayed confusion but she did not question it.

 _5, 6_

On the seventh beat, a voice called out.

"Team Fox?" Oh thank heavens. It was a Konoha team. Iruka let out a sigh of relief. The Leaf Squad did not wait for a reply before stepping out of the trees. The team consisted of three people. Kurenai Yuhi, Shizune Kato*, and Tsume Inuzuka. Iruka was only slightly surprised to see these females on the same team. But it was quite the team nonetheless.

"Team Fox, we are here to bring you back the The Leaf Village."

* * *

I'M SORRY. Please don't be upset! I know this chapter was late. I'm sorry. Not to mention that this chapter is fairly short. I hit writers block at the beginning part and then I got into a somewhat depressive mood and then the first part of this chapter was a little dark. Or maybe it was just a tad bit dark to me. I don't know. But then I got out of that mood and so there was a quick transition from a little dark to back to the normal tone of the story. Also, I can't really give any good excuse for the chapter being late...I was just watching movies. Like, the whole time. Not to switch from me being a terrible person and being sorry, but oh my God. Studio Ghibli is amazing. The only movies I watched were from them and wow. Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castel, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Whispers of the Heart and Princess Mononoke, are just a few. I _highly_ recommend those movies. Like, go watch them now.

But yah, I was just being a lazy bum the entire time and I am sorry I didn't update sooner. I really am.

Guest - My Lovely guest! Thank you for reviewing. (I think it's the same guest the whole time? But if not correct me please) Your review always put me in high spirits. So thank you for sticking with the story. It gives me hope knowing you want the story to continue.

Wawayaya - Yay! I like being your new favorite person! (It made me squeal when you said that but shhh. Don't tell anyone I said that.) Thank you for your review. It makes me so happy when you review. And did I tell you, I really liked the book you recommended? Because it was really good and I got some ideas. Also, thanks for liking Izanami, and I think I may just recycle her into another story later on too. Thanks again for giving me the confidence to continue.

Also, Thank you to everyone who favorite/followed the story. It makes me happy knowing you guys enjoy the story.

ANOTHER THING, I don't know if that is Shizune's last name. The Naruto Wiki didn't give her any last name so I took her uncle's, Don's, last name. I thought that it would at least make a little sense. Sorry this note was long. But I think it is worth reading. Thanks once again and I am really sorry too!


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Mistakes Are My Own**

 **I don't speak Japanese, so in all honesty, how could I own Naruto?**

* * *

Reinforcements? How did the Hokage know to send help? They were all passed out when the fight was over, and Iruka was the only one to wake up. So that ruled out Messenger Birds or Nin- Animals in general.

Kurenai was the next to speak. Iruka presumed that she was the leader because she was the only one who had talked so far. "Yesterday a messenger was supposed to go to Konoha with the details and location of Team Fox. Yet it never showed up. Lady Hokage sent us out to retrieve you." She was being oddly formal. Kurenai was a very kind person and while, she wasn't in Iruka's particular friend group, they knew each other enough to be informal. He saw Tsume Inuzuka and Shizune look at Izanami with blunt suspicion. Shizune already knew who Izanami was. When he returned back to Leaf a couple years ago Izanami let quite a few wounds from their spat and Shizune was the one to patch him up. Iruka put two and two together and figured that Kurenai was being so formal because she had no clue who this lady was.

Iruka cleared his throat. "Ah. Sorry, this is Izanami. She is an old friend of mine who is helping Hatake and Asuma. We got into a fight with missing-nins just before we reached the border and I was the only one to wake up." Well, that was a bit of a white lie. But they didn't need to know the rest of the details.

Shizune's eyes widened in recognition but she did nothing else. Izanami on the other hand, didn't feel the need to be formal or do anything different. She made a noise in the back of her throat, which suspiciously sounded like a laugh, and turned back into the cave. Kakashi was on his back with bandages covering his finely toned chest. Iruka felt his ears turn red. It shouldn't bother him if Kakashi had his shirt off, but he couldn't but help to stare. The muscles were very defined, yet did not give the impression that he was as strong as he actually was. Extraordinarily pale skin was also marinated with scars. The green mush that covered his new acquired cuts seemed to glow. "He was poisoned. I don't know how I missed it in the first place, but it was not fast acting. He will be fine within a couple of days, just make sure he doesn't over do it." Tsume snorted. Kakashi? Over do it? The brat would be walking around reading porn novels the very next day. Izanami's eye twitched before she whirled around to face Iruka.

"Dear God Rukie, I realize that he his half naked but stop screwing him with your eyes. You look like a rabbit during mating. You can screw him later when you get back to your own home." Iruka's face turned bright red as he started shaking his hands wildly back and forth; He was trying to deny the entire accusation but Izanami knew that he was nursing a crush. It was quite obvious if you squinted a tad and turned your head a little to the left. The retrieval team had very large grins on their faces. The Inuzuka was blatantly laughing while Shizune and Kurenai were chuckling.

"I think I could learn to like this chick," Tsume said after her laughing fit. And immediately following was Iruka's grumble, which reminded everyone of Naruto surprisingly enough. It didn't surprise him that Tsume and Izanami would get along. Both enjoyed very much enjoyed making other people squirm with embarrassment. He could only imagine what it was like having Tsume Inuzuka as a mother.

Kurenai gasped when her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting in the cave. Which caused Iruka to wince. Kakashi and Asuma looked very bad between both of their injuries. Asuma in particular. Anyone with a brain could realize the looks that Kurenai and him shared. They were obviously, extraordinarily, passionately, in love. If you looked at it in Iruka's and Izanami's terms, they were mates. Simple as that.

"Your mate should be fine. When Ruka brought umm, the tanned muscled one in, he was worse. I treated it as much as I could but you should know that the stab wound punctured his skin slightly. It did not go far enough into permanently harm him, and as long as you make it back to Konohagakure in time the stitches should not reopen. But your medic should check both of them over before you leave. Jus in case I missed something." Izanami said. So, she realized the mate thing too; it did not surprise Iruka in the slightest that she picked up on that little detail, but she did also have a knack for seeing those kinds of things.

Any other time, Kurenai would have denied the whole mate thing, but it seemed that at this moment she did not care too awful much. Shizune, (who was oddly quiet), took up a place right next to Izanami and started talking. Iruka could not get much out of the conversation other than _Medics_ , _Konoha, Addition,_ and _Injuries._ He did not have the best hearing outside of his natural form and he felt a little guilty for attempting to eavesdrop on their conversation. A little being the operative word. A slap on the shoulder brought him out of his attempt on eavesdropping. Iruka gasped out in a mix of surprise and pain, wrong shoulder to hit. It was his previously dislocated shoulder and it still held pain.

Izanami's head shot up to look at Iruka then she gave a dismissive snort and went back to talking.

"Yo pup, are you alright?" It was Tsume. And unfortunately, she did not realize her own strength, or she did and just enjoyed leaving bruises on unsuspecting chunin who recently dislocated their shoulders. "Yah, don't worry. I'm perfectly fine." Iruka said between grit teeth. Damn, that really hurt. Not to mention that she did that almost every time she saw him. Which was a decent amount of time considering he taught a majority of the Inuzuka Clan. Tsume seemed to not notice or chose to not notice, the way he favored his shoulder.

There was a single clap that brought everyone's attention to the middle of the cave. It echoed and seemed to take a long time before it finally went away, which left the cave dead silent. "I have been informed that you need to leave as soon as possible. I have already informed you medic of the circumstances of the boys over here. So I guess, being the amazing, wonderful person I am, I will lead you out of the cave and back on your way to civilization." Izanami called out with a wide grin on her face. "Wonderful? I don't know who told you that lie but-" "Shut your whore mouth Rukie-Ru!" The retrieval team seemed very surprised to hear the two people talking to each other like that. Shizune half expected Iruka to go off on Izanami, very few people had insulted him to his face and not made it out without some form of verbal abuse.

Quite a few times he had tore unsuspecting jounin, who had unfortunately underestimated him, a new one. One had even had the dipshit notion that he should start insulting Iruka after he went off on one of his tangents. Calling him, and quoting, 'A weak pathetic chunin who could couldn't even make jounin if he slept with the Hokage herself.'. The man was found crying in a corner not even 20 minutes later with Iruka still yelling at him. The jounin was taken back to his home while Iruka had a little 'chat' with the Hokage. She looked at Iruka and said, "Bad Chunin. Bad!" and then immediately started laughing her head off. Tsunade and Shizune found it quite funny. Unfortunately, the council did not feel the same way; Iruka was then taken off mission desk duty for a month and a half and had to take numerous classes on respect, which really talked only about the hierarchy between ninjas. And in the end, did nothing to stop Iruka from tearing into his superiors. But he always, always made sure to not go too far. There was a difference between standing up for yourself and insulting people in the process, and just being plain verbally abusive to people. This especially counted to people who were already on edge from missions. Sometimes it was just better to accept a sloppy mission report then make some poor ninja, no _human_ , go through the horrors again. But instead of yelling, Iruka simply laughed. To the two of them, insulting each other was friendly banter. Especially since Izanami believed that Iruka had not slept with anyone before.

It was one of the traits that he retained from the fox, he would mate for life. But it was a little more complicated than that. He would only be able to have sex with one person at a time and that was it. Yet if his partner died, Iruka would be able to find another mate. And mixed with his human personality, having sex with only one person at a time was enforced even more. Finding out about the different mating rituals was quite awkward for Iruka if he was being honest with himself. The Sandaime, who was practically his father at the time, basically handed him a scroll with all the information and said Go Nuts. Of course, the Third didn't actually say that, but it was the gist of the conversation before he was left to his own devices. There was most likely something more to learn, but most of it would be found out in due time.

"Fine, _Mom_ ," Iruka replied while being a sass master at the same time. Izanami waved her fist mockingly at the statement but went over the still sleeping male ninjas anyways. "They will be fine to go as long as you're careful. Ruka get over here and take the pale one. Uh, Kurenai, was it? You can take your mate. You look strong enough to hold your own and not to mention that if he becomes too much of a burden you can switch off, or just give him to Rukie. It depends on how much of an ass he is being to ya. Because always feel free to make him carry the heavy things or slap him across the back of the head. Whatever toasts your goats."

Iruka rolled his eyes once more but made no further comment. Kurenai did the same. If Iruka was being 100 percent honest with himself, the thought of anyone else carrying Kakashi made his stomach turn in wretched jealousy and disgust. Not that it mattered. It wasn't like Kakashi was his mate of anything. If he thought hard enough, the last time they saw each other, before the mission at least, was about a month ago when Iruka, Kotetsu, Izumo, and Anko went to have a night out to the bar. He faintly remembered Kakashi being there and the two of them talking, but that was about it. The rest of the night was a blur. And that was most likely because of all the alcohol consumed. Anko had a special way of making people want to drink more. It was truly a gift. And when Iruka woke up, around noon, he was in his own bed with an amazing hangover. It was one that made you consider if you wanted to chop off your own head or not. The 'or not' part because that required moving. Good thing he didn't have classes or he would be beyond screwed. Nobody really knew what happened that night, everyone, including Iruka, forgot mostly about it. It was strange that it was coming back to his mind at this moment. But it didn't matter, he shrugged it off and thought back on Izanami's words.

"You guys seem to be very good friends," Shizune said. It was one of those statements that seem to require and answer.

"We have known each other since, well, before Rukie's parents died. We grew up very close. Even though I didn't get to see him very often, we bonded." Izanami responded without a seconds hesitation. And it was true, they did bond. She was a few years older than Iruka and her parents were friends with his parents. And both being half demons was a very easy thing to bond over. And their friendship stuck, even after Izanami attempted to kill Iruka.

Shizune gave a nod as if that made anything clearer. In all honesty, she had many more questions. Though now was obviously not the most appropriate time to ask.

Once the unconscious nins were collected and what was left of their supplies, it was rapidly approaching daylight. Izanami's had an easy smile on her face yet her eyes were dark with what looked to be unshed tears. "Here take this, Shizune, if you ever in dire need of my help smash this rock on the ground and I will know to head towards your village. It's repayment for our conversation earlier." The other medic nodded and took the dark blue bordering black colored rock. It was dull beyond compare to many others and lacked anything that would make it stand out. It seemed to be a normal rock, yet Shizune had a feeling that it was anything but. And little did she know at the moment that she was correct in her assumption.

Izanami went over and gave Iruka a hug. Or, well, as much as she could with another person on his back that seemed to sprawl everywhere. It turned to be an awkward half-hug thing that was mixed with a pat on the back. But neither minded. After all, it was the thought that counted. Something was murmured in Iruka's ear before they parted. His face was solemn and spoke much more emotion than most could ever hope.

"Alright, Team Fox and Team Ret, move out!" Kurenai said and the in the next moment there was nothing but a beautiful, young lady standing by herself in front of a cave looking like she was ready to cry.

The trip back to Konoha was rather uneventful. They only had to stop about seven times and only once did Iruka have to hand off Kakashi to another person. The copy ninja was lighter than most but he was still quite heavy. Team Fox was immediately rushed off the hospital when they returned to the Leaf Village. They were all taken to different rooms and were soon checked out by the hospital staffing. After Iruka was discharged with nothing but a few shots that were meant to kill off any possible disease, infection, or poison that was laying dormant. His medi-nin told his that he was extraordinarily lucky that his windpipe was not crushed. According to her, he has bruising up along the side of his throat and should try to not speak that often in the upcoming days. It would only make his throat hurt even more. And Iruka definitely did not want that.

As he was walking home an ANBU member stopped him mid-step. "Iruka Umino, Lady Tsunade wishes to speak to you in her office." He, (or was it a she?), left immediately afterwards. He paled thinking about her reaction to his statement about what happened on the mission. How was he going to explain that Asuma saw him in his natural form? " _Hopefully she will kill me quickly and not prolong it,"_ Iruka thought as he redirected his steps towards the Hokage Tower.

Iruka was going to be in for the time of his life.

* * *

Hello! I'm back. Sorry this chapter isn't that long. I have hit somewhat of a writers block but it's getting better. I am going to try and keep this short so, thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/followed the story. It means the absolute world that people like and want to continue reading this story. Thank you Guest and Wawayaya for reviewing, I love hearing from you guys.

KakaIru will start to show more I swear! I don't really know how to add it in, I want to make it have some what of a build up but I really want to write it in soon. I just dont know how to add it in! Sorry for making you guys wait for anything KakaIru to happen. I feel bad about it. Anyways, if you guys could review and tell me what you either like or dislike about this chapter that would be really nice. I want to make sure that I am at least living up to somewhat of a standered while writing.

Thanks so much again!


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **All Mistakes Are Made By Me**

 **Somewhere in left field for owning Naruto**

* * *

It was a very beautiful and sunny afternoon in Konoha when Kakashi Hatake woke with a sneeze. He had woken up many different ways, but it was his first time to wake up just to sneeze. Pain, alarm clocks, the occasional lover, were some of the few. He was perplexed, to say the least when he felt pain radiate across his spine and torso, yet his mind felt muddled and fuzzy. At least he could rule out possible paralyzation. The smell of antiseptic and bleach reached his nose at an alarmingly fast rate considering the fact that couldn't see without annoying strings of white float through his vision. _Hospital._ Of all the places to wake up to! It's not that he had a fear of hospitals, doctors, or anything of the sort, he just really didn't like how inoffensive it was. The walls were always bare and painted either a blinding shade of white or a dull beige. There was nothing to make the room special or have any sort of flare. And this specific room was no different.

"Ah Kakashi, why do we always seem to run into each other when you have seemed to be extraordinarily close to death, hmm?" The ANBU, and Kakashi's, medical-nin, Daisuke, inquired. The question was obviously rhetorical but Kakashi couldn't help but respond.

"Well, it is your _job_ to look after me in the hospital. It's very nice to see you Daisuke, but can you tell me what exa-" the sentence was cut short from a grit off teeth that was made to hold back a gasp. An attempt to sit up was not the best course of action. His entire lower back was radiating pain and felt like he had one-thousand needles poking him over and over again.

"I recommend not doing that Kakashi, you will only succeed in agitating the antidote in your system. You were heavily poisoned on a mission and you are very, very lucky you did not lose your leg." Memories came flooding back to the Copy-Nin when the word 'mission' was mentioned.

~ooo~

 _The missing ninja he was fighting was easily jounin rank and the man had very few jutsu, but they were all honed to near perfection. Every strike, every flick of the wrist, every step was as graceful as a cat and had a plan behind it. Kakashi was on the defensive before his brain was able to formulate a plan. Soon, he forced into attacking the ninja when the man cornered him between trees. Unfortunately, it was the missing nins plan when a spray of a light tan mist was released from his mouth. It was an attempt to blind Kakashi but something as simple as that would never work against some of his skill and level. One nicely aimed Chidori_ _was all it took for the mist to fade away to show a bloodied man with a hole going straight through his jugular to collar bone. He fell the ground immediately, the man was dead before he even had a clue what had happened. Kakashi turned around to only feel his blood turn cold. His other team member was being held by the throat and futilely attempting to claw the missing-nin leader's hand. Rage clouded his vision while adrenaline spiked throughout his body, the pain faded and with the last of his chakra, he summoned back his Chidori._

" _Save him, never let another team member fall. Especially him, he can't die. Not now."_

~ooo~

A groan was released and it filled the near-silent room. Kakashi's head was throbbing and he finally felt the weight of his injuries and near chakra depletion. " _Iruka….Asuma….what happened to us?"_

* * *

"You...you insufferable disobedient little brat!" The words filled the fairly large room and a threatening aura was being given off. Iruka's tail was, metaphoricallyspeaking, between his legs. How else was he supposed to save his teammates? What, was he just supposed to leave them there while he went and brought back help? Sure...it was an extraordinarily hasty decision and now Asuma knew what he was and there was even a chance Kakashi knew also. It was honestly going to be a bitch for the Hokage to deal with. Word could get out very fast and if anyone _ever_ found out that Iruka was a demon, he would need to leave the village. It would be too much of a danger for everyone, demon hunters were always ruthless and did not care who was killed while acquiring their targets. Payment was their motive and as long as they got the job done, it was payment they would receive.

"How am I going to explain this? Two of our best ninja will need to be locked into secrecy and not to mention the fact that even if they can't say anything, what will stop them from not trusting you or more importantly the village itself? Just because they cannot speak of the incident does not mean that actions will not happen. Shizune, get me some alcohol!"

Her anger and stress were not unwarranted. Not to mention that Iruka was leaving within the next few days so amendments could not properly be made. He had to keep reminding himself that it could be a lot worse right now. Tsunade could have killed him for disobeying a direct command.

"And let me guess, you didn't even get the scroll the missing nins offered, did you?" The Hokage's anger seemed to diminish and was replaced with weariness. Iruka bowed his head even more. He forgot entirely about to scroll when he saw both of his teammates passed out on the ground. But in his defense, being choked into passing out and then waking up to an overwhelming smell of blood and not knowing if your teammates were alive or dead would make anyone forget about other things for a while.

"I am extraordinarily sorry my lady. But if I can speak freely, I know now that I did not properly formulate a plan and that was poor on my part, but I do not regret the decision I made. I believe that if I didn't act when I did, Hatake and Asuma would have been in larger trouble than they are now." And that was the truth. Most likely if they did not get help from Izanami when they did, Asuma's wound would be majorly infected and Kakashi would probably be in the same boat.

Tsunade gave a weary sigh and locked eyes with the chunin. "Good. If you were sorry about saving them, you and I would be having an entirely different talk." Of course, Iruka was not out of the woods yet, but her anger was fading and that was what mattered. Shizune returned to the room with a small bottle of sake and a shot glass. Oh how the Hokage loved her drinks.

"Return to your home. But be prepared for me to call upon you at any time. Because I will be calling you in before you leave for your little 'vacation'." She poured herself a glass of sake and took it down in one shot, then raised her eyebrow expectantly, "Well? What are you still doing here? Get the hell out of my office, brat."

Iruka bowed before leaving the room. He heaved a sigh of relief. That could have gone a hell of a lot worse, but thank god she was in a good mode. The trek home seemed to take the last of his energy and as soon as he reached his bed, the world ceased and sleep was welcomed.

~ooo~

Iruka groaned as an incessant beeping rang throughout his room. It was time to get up and face the world. He was leaving the next day for his 'vacation' and even though he had recently returned from a particularly terrible mission, Iruka had insisted that he return to teaching at the academy. Shikamaru was left in charge of his class and, well, Shikamaru wasn't exactly _teaching material_. He was just a little bit too lazy and passive to deal with his troublemaker class.

It was not just merely a coincidence that he got many of the troublemakers that were in the different years. Iruka was famous for being a strict yet very kind teacher, causing the children to enjoy and respect him immensely. Of course, once he stepped out of the room or if there was a substitute all of that respect went right out the window. On one particular occasion, Iruka came back to a kill-me-orange painted room and the substitute tied to a chair. The teacher had made the unfortunate mistake of underestimating the tiny hellions. And secretly, after all of the yelling and lecturing, he was laughing very hard. It was hilarious, not to mention that the other teacher was a douche who thought that the world revolved around him. Iruka absolutely hated arrogant people.

After eating a piece of toast and throwing on an outfit, Iruka left his tiny apartment in order to make it to the training grounds before school started. It would be near impossible to train while he was at at the village*. The village elders worked him like a dog, fixing things and helping in the rice fields from dawn until dusk. Getting eight hours of sleep was a luxury at best during that time, and being a ninja helped quite a lot.

He reached training ground five within a few minutes. His apartment was only about a block or so away and very few people were up at five in the morning. The markets usually started bustling around seven and the market owners and traders didn't start moving until six. Iruka sat down cross legged and closed his eyes. Today was all about training his mind instead of his body. It was important to keep the mind sharp and clear; in battles your opponent could be faster, stronger, and have every advantage, but if you could out think them, even for a moment, the battle's odds would turn in your favor. Being smarter than your opponent would win over brute strength any day.

Iruka cleared his mind until the only thing he was able to concentrate on was breathing. It took him a long while before he was able to only concentrate on his breathing, animals and insects were always making noise and every once in awhile a person walked by. The rustle of leaves broke the silent spell that was cast and Iruka's eyes flew open to the bush next to him. He slowly grabbed a kunai from his vest pocket and moved into a crouching position. All breathing stilled and everything quieted for a split second before a dog came out of the bushes. A golden, borderline yellow dog that barely came up to Iruka's mid calf ran out with wild looking eyes and kept turning its' head back and forth. Iruka's confusion was halted when the dog darted behind him and stopped moving. Not wanting to anger or frighten the pup any further, Iruka slowly sat down on his knees, still sheltering the animal from view. More movement came from behind the tree and bush line, this time only a little bit slower and a lot larger. Iruka gripped the kunai just in case the person who came out was not particularly friendly, he did not feel like getting into a fight if he could help it. Then almost immediately realized that he did not need it because Kakashi Hatake was towering over him with one eye narrowed and sopping wet.

"What are you doing? I have been looking everywhere for you after that little damn stunt you pulled." Kakashi's voice seemed to give off the feeling that he was beyond pissed.

"W-what do you mean Hatake? I have not, in your words, pulled a stunt recently." Feeling very trapped and defensive caused his words to come out a tad bit harsher than intended.

"Oh. Sorry Sensei, not you. I am talking to my ninken behind you. He decided it would be a great way to wake me up by making me go on a morning walk and then knock me into a pond." Kakashi's backed off when he realized that he was towering over the teacher but did not relinquish the glare he had going on.

"I will just be taking him back with me now, so thank you for trapping him before he got away again." Kakashi reached around and grabbed the dog by the scruff, pulling him from behind the other man and brought the dog to his chest. Still confused and a little bit dumbfounded, Iruka could not do anything besides give a slow nod and got up off of the ground.

"Kakashi-Sensei, you won't do anything drastic to the dog will you?" It was a reasonable concern at this point, Kakashi seemed very angry and the animal was looking extraordinarily pitiful just clinging onto the jounin's vest. "Nah, nothing this pup can't handle. Isn't that right?" The tone seemed to give off a weird mix between scary, amused, a subtle promise of work to come.

"No, boss. I can handle the punishment." The dog responded downcast by his owner's tone. It surprised Iruka a little when the dog actually responded. Reflecting on the previous conversation, Kakashi did say that the dog was a ninken. Summons usually knew human speech in order to create a better bond and to create a better communication system in combat. "You can come oversee his punishment if you want Sensei." The offer was laid was an eye smile.

"Thank you for the offer, but I must get back to the academy. School starts in a little bit and I have work to do." Iruka returned the smile and turned back the way he came. It was a bit of a white lie, school didn't start for another two hours and all of his lesson plans were already written out.

"Maybe another time then." Kakashi looked like he was ready to leave when a voice rang out from in-between his arms. "Wait! Sensei, I just wanted to let you know that I would be careful if I were you. You have a weird animal smell on you. If you have wild animal near you, I would get rid of them. They do nothing but cause trouble. That was it. Have a nice day." The pup rushed the last part, most likely presuming that his owner was about to leave. By the time Iruka blinked again, Kakashi and his ninken were already gone and all that remained was a puff of smoke. Well that was helpful advice, but the only 'weird animal' in the area was him.

" _Well that's not good. I thought I got most of the fox smell off of me."_ It was one of the lingering effects from turning in a fox. You always retained a slight smell afterward. Not unnerved by the dogs words, Iruka continued on his day as normal. He was called into the Hokage's office for a brief word but then was told to go home. Lady Tsunade would not be telling Asuma and Kakashi of his 'condition' until after he left. To be honest, he did not suspect that Kakashi knew a thing, but all ninjas are trained to be good liars and to know how to properly mask their feeling.

There were no interruptions on his way home, (Thank God), and after undoing his protection wards Iruka was finally home. It would be a long journey to the village and he wanted to get some last minute work done before leaving. Grabbing his red pen and paperwork, Iruka made himself a nest of work on the couch and proceeded to finish all of the work and more that he needed done.

* * *

Hello, I'm back after a while. I am really sorry for not updating sooner. I got really sidetracked and I didn't finish this chapter until like 20 minutes ago. I am really sorry for not getting this chapter out and it probably is not that well written because I somewhat rushed it. I wanted to thank everyone for reviewing, favoriting, bookmarking, this story. It means the absolute world to me. Thank you so much to Wawayaya for giving me the amazing idea to use Kakashi's point of view, it should really help in the future with where I want to take this story. Pssssh, but I totally thought of using point of view changes... _totally_. (Joking here) Thanks once more! Please review if you can with any feedback/criticism that you have. I love hearing from you guys! Oh, and I wanted to let you know that I plan on going to a cosplay convention soon because I recently got a Kakashi cosplay! I will let you know when I decide that I am going. Finally, with the *. I don't know if I made it very clear but Iruka was talking about the village he goes to once he gets stuck in his fox form. Okay, that's all I have for now. Bye Bye!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 **All Mistakes Are My Own**

 **I clearly do not own Naruto**

* * *

There were three sharp knocks that brought Iruka out of his half sleeping state. He was still in cross-legged on the couch with papers scattered everywhere. Surprisingly enough, Iruka did not keep everything crisp and tidy, he preferred an nice organized chaos. Which was the state of his apartment. Don't get it wrong, the apartment was far from being a slob; it just had a lot of stuff moved off to the edges of the room. Iruka knew where everything was and organizing everything was just too much of a hassle with his work schedule. The knocks sounded again and he rushed over his couch to the door. Papers went flying and now littered the ground, his pen also fell off the coffee table it was set on and rolled off somewhere.

Iruka ran his hand sloppily over his head in a futile attempt to possibly brush down any hair that was sticking up. He opened his door to find that, no one was there? How incredibly strange. He peered from left to right down the hallway and found no sign that there was a person who knocked. Furrowing his eyebrows together, Iruka stepped back in order to shut his door when there was a sharp noise by his feet. He looked down to what had made the noise, and there was a golden looking dog. But not just any dog, it the one he ran into before. The one that apparently pushed Kakashi into the pond yesterday morning. But what in the world could he, (or was it a she?), want? Iruka honestly had no business with the animal, but it would be incredibly rude to not to acknowledge it.

"Ah, hello. Can I, um, help you?" Iruka mentally chided himself. It felt silly to be talking to a dog, even if it was a ninja dog that was capable of talking to other humans and most likely had a higher intelligence than some people. But then again, what if he started off the conversation wrong? Was there some proper way to talk to a ninken? Oh god, what if he just made an incredibly terrible first impression?! Iruka could imagine everything playing out now. The dog would go home to Kakashi and tell him all about the incredibly rude, insolent, and stupid chunin. And Kakashi would just nod and the budding friendship between them would crumble and wilt away.

Iruka was internally screaming. He just screwed up! Oh how he wished he could go back and restart this conversation. What an idiot he was!

"Uh, Sensei? You alright there? Boss sent me over to check out your apartment because of that animal smell that I noticed on you earlier. He wanted me to make sure that their wasn't some animal bothering the neighborhood." The dog shoved his way passed Iruka into the apartment and was looking mildly concerned. Or well, as much as a dog could. It is very hard to show facial expressions when you don't have as distinct features as humans do.

But worrying over how to interpret facial expressions could wait because there is now a larger issue at hand. How was Iruka going to explain the strange smell that was most prominent in his home? It would probably only take a few moments for the ninken to put two and two together. Demons were not well liked by anyone, regardless of species.

Demons were notorious for being brutal and killing without cause. But halflings...halflings were different. These hybrids had a vengeance. No one was willing to accept them. Outcast, honorless, and depression was a deadly combination. If there was only one thing that separated Demons and Halflings, it was that halflings didn't discriminate who they killed. Everyone deserved to be punished. Everyone deserved to feel the pain, the suffering, that they did. Not a demon, not a human deserved to live. But then their was Iruka. Dear sweet Iruka who forgave the misdeeds of the two races. He who valued life. He who felt pity for the ones who couldn't understand. The one who couldn't stand to kill unless attacked. But he was a hybrid. And at the moment, not another person, or animal for that matter, could find out his true identity. Knowing this information put everyone at risk. Iruka wouldn't be able to stand himself if someone got hurt because of him. Right now, he had to protect his identity at all costs.

"Iruka, do you mind if I call you that? Boss says that a lot of people call you that. But I think you have a wild animal coming into your house. I can call over boss to help you-" The ninken's words were cut short by Iruka's panicked and hasty response.

"No, no, there is no need for that! I, uh um, have fox summons! It could just be that you smelled them on me! Absolutely no need to get worried!" He gave off a blinding white smile afterwards that screamed innocence. Iruka could convince anyone with that smile. It was his number one defense against being accused of anything.

"I'm really sorry to be rude, but can I ask you to leave? I need to continue putting things in order for my mission that I leave for in a few hours." _Oh please, oh please leave. I really don't know if I keep making lies up on the spot. Well, I can but this will come back and bite me in the ass if I tell too many lies. Just get out and leave me be, I beg of you!_

"Oh. I guess that would explain the smell. But are you sure? There seems to be something else mixed with this smell. It smells like another-"

"Nope! Thank you for coming over! I appreciate the sentiment of trying to help but there really is no need, so you can just go back to Hatake. Have a nice day." The door was slammed in the poor dog's face. The animal was practically forced back out into the hallway by Iruka. But he couldn't have the dog narrowing down the smell specifically. It would not end well for anyone. Iruka let out a large breath of air that he was unconsciously holding. He was beyond screwed at this point. And it was without a doubt that the ninken would go back and tell Kakashi about the odd encounter. What a shit storm this was turning out to be.

"Dammit. I am so dead."

* * *

 _~The Previous Morning~_

Kakashi was wet, cold, and pissed. Earlier that morning, Bisuke had ever so nicely decided to appear and demand that Kakashi take him on a walk. At five in the morning. Now, it wasn't an extremely large deal. He usually got up around this time anyways, so a walk would have been fine. Except for the fact that once they passed a pond, Bisuke thought it would be an amazing idea to ram into the back of his knees, causing him to trip and fall into said pond. Once Kakashi got over the initial shock of falling into freezing cold water, he was pissed. And Bisuke seemed horrified. His ninken knew him well enough that when he got upset, punishment was going to be severe and harsh. Kakashi stood up and Bisuke ran like a bad outta' hell.

 _You are so dead when I get you, you little asshole._

 **~ooo~**

Between jumping over bushes in random people's yards and running straight through four training grounds, i took approximately 22 minutes when Kakashi caught up to Bisuke. He was beyond pissed. He was shivering from the cold and his vision was going through random intervals of blurriness. Speaking of blurriness, it was happening again. It wasn't really like an I'm-going-to-pass-out kinda blurry, it was more like I-just-got-up-and-it's-really-bright. But Bisuke was very clear; the animal was hiding behind another person. Who exactly it was, was difficult to tell. Kakashi would just have to wait for the blurriness to fade.

"What are you doing? I have been looking for you after that damn stunt you pulled." He leaned over to get a better view of the ninken but a voice responded that was not the dog's. It was such a recognizable voice. One that made Kakashi freak the hell out after hearing it.

 _You're kidding me. It's Iruka Umino. Well fuck me. How do I continue with this conversation?! 'Oh hey, thanks for saving my ass when I passed out, even though I shouldn't have passed out in the first place. Thanks though!' Okay, just play it cool. I can thank him and leave; that's all there is to it._

"Oh, sorry Sensei, not you. I am talking to my ninken behind you. He decided it would be a great way to wake me up by making me go on a morning walk and then knock me into a pond." _Wow. Smooth._

Kakashi backed off after, he just noticed that he was basically invading Iruka's personal space. He remembered afterwards that Bisuke was still there and glared at the dog. He needed to get out of this situation before he made a complete and utter fool of himself.

"Well I will just be taking him back with me now, so thank you for trapping him before he got away again." Kakashi hastily reached over and grabbed Bisuke and dragged him to his wet and cold chest. Iruka nodded to him in acknowledgement and proceeded to get off of the ground.

"Kakashi-Sensei, you won't do anything drastic to the dog will you?" _Ack! Is that really the impression I give off? I would never hurt my ninken! Okay, well not permanently harm, but Bisuke will not be getting off without some form of punishment._

"Nah, nothing this pup can't handle. Isn't that right?" The dog knew what was coming next. Bisuke really knew he shouldn't have interfered like everyone else said. It would have just been best to leave things between the two men be. But no. 'It will be fine!' they said. 'Yah, the brat needs some new company,' they said. Now Bisuke was going to go through the worst punishments ever. He was never going to interfere again.

"No boss, I can handle the punishment," Kakashi smiled after hearing the answer. Iruka seemed to be a tad puzzled but quickly got over it.

"You can come oversee his punishment if you want sensei." _But you don't have to. But I really wouldn't mind if you come._

"Thank you for the offer, but I must be getting back to the academy. School starts in a little bit and I have work to do." Iruka turned around and started walking.

Kakashi's smile fell and a strange sensation filled his chest. He really couldn't place an exact name on the feeling, but it felt somewhat like disappointment. He knew the academy didn't start for about another two hours. So why would Iruka lie about having to get back to the academy? But it didn't matter; Iruka said no and Kakashi still had a dog to punish.

"Maybe another time then." Iruka was half turned around and Kakashi was ready to leave. But Bisuke had other ideas.

"Wait! Sensei, I just wanted to let you know that I would be careful if I were you. You have a weird animal smell on you. If you have wild animals near you, I would get rid of them. They do nothing but cause trouble. That was it. Have a nice day." Kakashi teleported back to his own home immediately afterwards.

"You are kidding me, right? Running after pulling a stunt like that? You're lucky if I don't throw you to the wolves. And bothering Iruka-Sensei? I bet he had better things to do than babysit you." Kakashi was holding Bisuke by the scruff in front of him. The ninken looked like he wanted to interrupt but Kakashi continued. "And what do you mean he had a weird smell on him? I did not smell anything strange."

"Well, I didn't expect you to notice boss. Now, now. Don't get all huffy on me. I didn't mean it like that. The smell was ingrained into his normal one. It was extremely faint and while you do have an extremely strong nose for a human, it can't match with one of ours. Sorry, but I'm just being honest. But the scent concerns me. I can't match it with anything...it smells kinda like a fox, or maybe a coyote, but I can't tell for sure."

"That is extremely strange… " Kakashi said with a frown. Why would he have a fox or coyote scent? Iruka lives on the border between the civilian and shinobi districts, which is smack dab in the middle of Kohona. It would be extremely difficult for a wild animal to get into the village, let alone stay there for a fixed amount of time.

"Well, I guess I know what you are doing tomorrow morning. Now, let's go find a couple missions for you to go on in the meantime; how about that one with the psychotic runaway cat?" Kakashi asked with a grin on his face. Bisuke just whimpered.

* * *

 _Trees. Nothing but trees. Oh look, a purple flower. And more trees~_. Don't get Iruka wrong, he loved nature. The crunchy red and gold leaves, the bright blue sky, the chill in the air that promised more snow to come. It was all very beautiful but after an hour and a half of walking, nature became very boring. Iruka left earlier than anticipated, so he decided to take it slow. He usually went at shinobi speed and...that might have to do with the fact that he was perpetually late. He either left late or got side tracked and arrived late. It was an extremely bad habit that only shined when something actually important was going on. But the village wasn't going anywhere and even if he walked the entire way, Iruka would probably still make it on time.

 **~ooo~**

Iruka was surprised, to say the least, when he came across a village. It was tiny and probably only had 30 homes, maximum. Yet, the village was not here a year ago when Iruka last took his trip. It was not unusual for random villages to pop up in Fire Country. Between most of it being a temperate deciduous forest and it being a very large country smack dab in the middle of many other countries, it became a very good place to settle down at. Nonetheless, he was put immediately on defensive mode while going into the village.

There was no one. Despite the fact that it was a lovely day out, the houses were closed up. Usually, children would be running and playing while parents laughed at some silly inside joke, but not now. It sounded like some cliche haunted place in a dime novel. Iruka wanted to laugh; now, all that needed to happen was a tumbleweed roll across the dirt road.

Where was everyone? Maybe it was abandoned? Although… everything seemed to be nice and quaint. The houses were painted different shades of blue, green, and white. Farms lined the outskirts of the village and flowers lined the sidewalks. It was peaceful. So peaceful in fact, that Iruka unconsciously lowered his guard a little bit. Even though it was only a little, Iruka failed to notice the person behind him. And he failed to notice right up until said person grabbed the back of the neck and hit him right in the solar plexus. All of the air Iruka had was knocked out of him as he fell the ground.

 _Get up, get up, get up!_

Iruka pushed off the ground to stand up and run away but fate did not agree. His knees buckled and he fell again.

 _I feel so weak, what's going on?! Why can't I stand? I need to get away!_

Iruka fell on his back and noticed black marks. They lined his hands and feet. Intricate black swirls that glowed bright gold every time he went to move.

"Please do not struggle. It will make my job a lot worse. You will start feeling very tired in, approximately 13 and a half seconds. I recommend that you give in or you will start to feel some pain." It was a male with the exact same black marks on his arms.

"Go to hell." Iruka spat. He would not just give in. Just because he couldn't move didn't mean that he couldn't fight. But the man was correct. The pain slowly radiated into his body. Starting with his feet and quickly running to every single part of his body.

 _I cannot give in. Ignore the pain. It doesn't hurt. Ignore it._

Sadly, the chant Iruka was mentally saying did nothing. The pain grew and grew until Iruka felt like he could die and not care. He screamed, loud and clear. It resonated across the village and scared crows into flying from trees.

The pain stopped when he passed out. That was how the jutsu worked. It drove the victim into passing out from pain. Quite painful if you did not give in within the first few moments.

"Finally. And to let you know, been there, done that. Hell is not a very nice place." The man said as he hoisted Iruka over his shoulder. "You are a fighter. The boss may not like that. It's best to just give in. But i guess you will find that out." But the words fell upon deaf ears, Iruka did not hear anything in his sleeping state. And the man knew that.

"How unfortunate this happened to you. You are so young." But the man continued on his way. There was no sympathy for what Iruka Umino was about to go through in the next few days. Not a single bit.

* * *

"Did you get him?" A woman dressed in a white kimono asked. She stared out the window as she awaited the answer.

"Yes, he is sleeping at the moment."

"Mm. Well, we can't have the brute like that, now can we? Let's go wake him up. It should be quite a bit of fun." The kimono swished behind her and the man with black marks followed.

It was time.

* * *

Hello! I am back with a new chapter that is slightly longer than usual. So, be happy. I wanted to make mention that, to me at least, Kakashi is really panicky and talkative on the inside, but just acts really calm. So that's how I am going to write him. Sorry if anyone has an issue with it. Also, Kakashi's face?! It's so beautiful! I am so glad we finally got a face reveal!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and followed the story! It means a lot. So if anyone has any comments or criticism, please share! And thank you to Wawayaya for pointing out my mistakes! I fixed them so thank you for pointing them out. (It was a little embarrassing that I did that.)

And finally, my best friend found my story. Which was quite embarrassing, so if you are reading this right now, get off of my story! You don't even watch Naruto! And don't tell anyone else!

So without further ado, goodbye everyone!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 **All mistakes are my own**

 **I don't own Naruto**

* * *

 _Calm your breathing. Search your surroundings._

Iruka's head fell like it was about to fall off. The searing pain came back ten-fold every time. He couldn't lay still for more than a few seconds, squirming every few moments when the pounding in his head came back. Iruka's thoughts soon became incoherent as the pain grew and grew. He was hyperventilating at this point. Even with all of the mandatory torture training with Ibiki could not prepare him for this. How pathetic he must look; squirming back and forth on the concrete floor, breathing raggedly, trying desperately to claw at his head.

There was a small gasp in front of Iruka, but he did not take any notice. "Idiot, why didn't you release the bindings earlier? It could be having brain failure at this point! Don't just stand there. Do as I say!"

The insistent pounding subsided almost immediately. But that did not mean Iruka felt better, to be honest, he felt worse. The aftershock was quickly stealing any energy he had left. He turned to the side and started coughing. Blood and mucus stained the floor. Iruka was desperately wishing that he would not vomit. It would only make matters worse. Bile rose in his throat making him gag. His throat burned as he choked down the fluid. Iruka made one last desperate move to sit up but it was unsuccessful. It hurt, oh how everything hurt.

"Shhh poor child, rest now. It will be better soon. Just listen to me darling." The woman moved towards the sickly man. Her voice was smooth and relaxing; one word made everything seem better. She sat down by Iruka and placed his head in her lap. The lady tsked and attempted to gently pull out the ponytail. It snagged on the knotted hair about halfway down and it took a few tugs to get it free. But the small twinge of discomfort from hair being ripped out did not register to Iruka. It felt like nothing. The woman took her fingers and gently raked it down his hair, freeing all the knotted strands. It would have felt nice if Iruka was not so on edge.

He was in an unfamiliar place, some woman was trying to sooth him, and pain radiated while energy quickly fled. Iruka had not felt this on edge in a very long time. His thoughts were few and stuck on one subject.

 _Get away, make her stop. Make it all stop. Just STOP._

The lady's fingers stopped on the side of Iruka's cheek. She was trying to get a knot out when Iruka struck. He swiftly turned his head and bit the fingers that he could reach. His jaw clamped down and he bit as hard as he could. But it was not strong enough. The woman took her other hand and gripped the top of Iruka's hair and pulled upwards. His head lifted with the movement and he left go of her hand. Bit marks were left and the fingers were quickly becoming black and blue with bruises. She yanked his head so it was a mere inch from her own. His eyes closed with the immense pain that bloomed at the top of his skull. Iruka could literally feel the hair being pulled out of his head. The woman was furious, to say the least. No one ever, _ever,_ disrespect her and got away with it. Never.

"You little bitch! Didn't you ever hear the phrase, 'Don't bite the hand that feeds you'? Because your mommy should have taught you better," She gripped his hair even tighter and leaned next to his ear and whispered in it. "I will destroy you, demon. I will break your will to live, your will to even breathe. And then afterwards, I will kill everyone you hold dear, starting with that blond kit of yours. Then, and only then, will I grant you the permission the die."

She fisted her hand in Iruka's hair one last time and slammed him face first into the concrete. The pain radiated throughout his body, causing dear Iruka to pass out once more. His nose bled like a faucet turned on its highest setting. It was obviously broken, the crooked features were dead giveaway. Oh, how foolish that move was, how stupid.

The woman stood up, stepping over Iruka's head while walking. Her pure white kimono was now stained with small red blood splatters. She rolled her eyes in disgust. How messy this turned out to be.

"Sit it against the wall with its' head tilted down. The demon cannot choke on his own blood and die. My hard work would go to waste… plus that was a promise that I don't plan on forsaking. Get me a new kimono afterwards. This one is stained. Put it in the box with the others."

The woman swiftly moved through the doorway and around the corner. The man lifted his head only when she was no longer in sight. He never looked her in the eye, she would most likely kill him if he did. She was a goddess on a mortal plane. The man moved towards Iruka and propped him against the cold, grey wall. The bleeding had slowed a little, but it was still flowing. The front of Iruka's shirt was stained and dried blood was along his mouth and chin.

"You brought this upon yourself. Biting her like that; you're lucky she didn't do anything more than break your nose at the moment. But only god knows how many you and your kind have killed. You deserve it." The man's tone started out a tad bit sympathetic but by the end of his talking, it was cold and harsh. It seemed that he couldn't tell if he was supposed to be sympathetic or cold towards Iruka yet. The first option would be better, of course. But then again, it the easiest emotion to exploit. Right next to love, of course.

And yet again, the man's words fell upon deaf ears, for Iruka was not listening. The dark had taken him prisoner and had not let him go yet. But the burly man did not seem to care. He had done as instructed by his boss. Now, it was time to let the demon lay and wait for it to wake up.

"Well, you're home early. May I ask why?" Kakashi inquired as Bisuke laid down on the couch at Kakashi's feet. He raised an eyebrow while waiting for the dog to respond. The ninken left only about a half an hour ago, he should be back for at least another 25 minutes. It took about 20 minutes there and back, so that left only ten minutes actually with the chunin sensei.

"Your precious little chunin basically pushed me out the door. He was acting extremely weird about letting me check out the smell. He told me he had fox summons…" Bisuke's voice gave off the impression that he was in a small state of disbelief. Kakashi was somewhat confused by the dog's tone. He didn't know that Iruka had fox summons, but anything was possible he guessed.

Ignoring the comment about his precious little chunin, Kakashi voiced his thoughts. "So? I guess anyone would be a little weirded out by some random animal showing up at their door. And I had no clue he had summons. I guess anything is possible." He shrugged at then end and went back to reading his book.

"Boss, I don't think you understand. There is no way he could have fox summons. The foxes haven't signed a contract with anyone in decades. They're a picky bunch who rather play tricks on each other than actually be useful."

That stopped Kakashi in his tracks. Why would Iruka feel the need to lie about have summons? Was it to make himself sound cooler? Nah, that didn't seem to fit Iruka's personality. But that didn't explain the weird behavior that he was displaying. _What the hell is going on?_

"Why do you think he woul-" Kakashi started but another presence stopped him mid-sentence. It was a purposeful flare of chakra that drew his attention. An ANBU was sitting outside of his window on a tree branch. It must be urgent if they let Kakashi know that they were there. Usually, they would wait until Kakashi got bored and finally acknowledged their presence. It was a game that Kakashi, not so secretly, enjoyed.

Kakashi stood up and moved to open the window. The ANBU had a bird-like mask that hid its features. He really didn't want to deal with ANBU today but it seemed inevitable.

"Hatake, Lady Hokage requests your presence in her office in ten minutes. She requests that you not be late." The voice was slightly muffled but Kakashi still heard it loud and clear. _It must really be important if she requests, (demands), that I am not late._ The Bird ANBU was gone after the message was delivered. Which was to be expected.

It was a half an hour before Kakashi actually showed up at the Hokage's office. If he was being honest, that was quite early for him. And of course, Lady Tsunade did not expect him to show up on time. It was one of his many quirks, or bad habits, whichever you prefer to call it. Kakashi knocked on the door before entering. Shizune was standing by the Hokage's desk with her pet pig in her arms. It was quite a familiar sight for that was how Kakashi usually saw them. What surprised him the most was Asuma standing near the window to the very left. _Maybe it's another mission? This time a two man squad?_

"Sorry for being late Lady Hokage, I was stopped by a child who had lost her mommy and-" Kakashi went to continue his elaborate story but was stopped by Tsunade putting up her hand to stop him from speaking. I small smile hit her lips but it quickly fled for a frown.

"As much as I would love to hear another one of your stories, I have to move on to a more serious matter." Kakashi frowned. Something had to be extremely wrong. Tsunade rarely interrupted his stories, no matter how untruthful or unrealistic they were. He had a sneaking suspicion that she actually liked to hear his stories.

Tsunade pulled out a rather thin file from her desk. And threw it onto the desk. It was closer to the two jounin than to the Hokage. It had in very large, bold letters the word 'RESTRICTED' etched across the front. It made Kakashi curious why he was in here. He now presumed that he was being sent on another mission with Asuma but what kind of mission was the real question.

"You're wondering why you're here, correct? This file needs Hokage level clearance, which I am temporarily granting you. So that means that you have my permission to read this file. Please do not talk until you have seen everything," Tsunade's voice was solemn as she opened the file and pushed it even closer towards the two men. She was concerned about what their reactions would be. This entire day was going to be shitty.

Both of the men stepped closer to get a better look and neither moved afterwards. Asuma's eyes visibly darkened and his eyebrows drew furrowed together. The cigarette in his mouth wobbled ever so slightly. Kakashi, on the other hand, was blank. The mask he had on hid his feature from the rest of the world. But his mind was whirling with confusion.

Demons were just a thing of fairy tales that mothers told their kids to get them to eat their vegetables and go to sleep on time. There was no such thing as demons. You better start saying that faeries exist and unicorns wandered Kirigakure. He reread the file thirty times before looking back up at the Hokage. Was this some sort of sick joke that he didn't understand? Calling Konoha's best teacher a demon-hybrid-thing was quite a stretch. But the more Kakashi thought about it, the more the pieces fit into place. If he really was a 'fox demon', would that explain the faint animals smell? And why he lied about having summons? It would surely explain how he awakened back in Konoha and not dead in some forest. _What are you trying to say Hokage? That Iruka Umino is the thing that little children have nightmares about?_

"I did not want you to find out like this, but I have no better way of explaining it. On your previous mission, you were attacked by a band of missing nins and were severely injured after fighting. You both were passed out and extremely sickly. Iruka Umino is the only reason you two are alive today. I am going to ask that you save all questions for a tomorrow; I am releasing you to go back to your homes in order to process this information."

 _Wait what? You honestly cannot tell us to leave after giving us all this bullshit information!_

"You will not speak a word of this to anyone. If you do, I will have you charged with treason and killed." Tsunade's eyes were hard by the end and the words she said were the truth. Neither of the two jounin is irreplaceable. This secret can not get out to the public or there would be a mass panic.

"That is it. You will meet me here tomorrow at noon. Not a second later. Now leave." She slammed the file shut and took it back.

Asuma and Kakashi wasted no time teleporting out of the office. They both took Tsunade's threat seriously and both of them were confused. How the hell were they supposed to believe this? Kakashi sat down on his couch and Bisuke looked at him. The boss looked extremely confused; it was rare that he was this troubled. Kakashi groaned and put his hands over his face.

 _What the fuck is going on?_

* * *

Yo, how are you guys doing? I'm doing okay. Thank you to everyone who review, liked, followed AFDW. It means a lot. Uh, actually I wanted to talk about something a little more serious. I have been doubting this story a bit. I mean, I know I'm not the best write and this is nowhere near the perfect story. But I feel like this story is just not that good. Don't get me wrong, I will in no way stop this story. I want to continue it. But I just feel like I am doing, to say it plainly, a shitty job. I don't know. And I also wanted to say that updates may start to be less frequent than they are now. School is starting up this week for me, actually, and the first week is always the hardest. And I need to also keep my grades up, which isn't very hard for me, but still.

On a happier note, we are getting close to the climax of the story! It will be getting a tad more intense in future chapters too!

Thank you to everyone once again, and if you have any review/criticism please let me know! Reviews are hella nice. I'll see ya guys in the next update! Bye, bye!


	10. AN

Hey guys, I'm back for the moment. Not with an update, unfortunately. I just want to apologize for how shitty I am. I haven't updated, haven't said anything, and I basically just fell off the face of the earth. I am so, so sorry for not saying anything. I would blame it on school, but it's not that. I haven't had any inspiration lately and it's getting harder to write something that doesn't seem like shit and, to put it bluntly, suck. I apologize for the lack of context and I will try my damn hardest to get something out. I promise, just give me a little bit of time. I am so sorry once again. I beg for your guy's forgiveness.

-SaltyCats


End file.
